Key Changes to England Hockey Regional Teamfrom Shelley Watts, EH Regional Network ManagerYou may be aware that EH have recently been updating the England Hockey strategy and have received our 4 year investments from Sport England and UK Sport. The picture is very positive overall for hockey, particularly in light of the broader landscape of National Governing Bodies (NGBs) in England. Since receiving our awards, the Board have reviewed the staffing structure at England Hockey and we are making some relatively minor changes across the organisation to ensure we are structured in the best way to deliver our strategy moving forwards.

What is changing?The most relevant changes to you relate to the team of Relationship Managers and Administrators in the local offices.One of the key risks to our sport going forward is pitch availability and development. Hockey has grown significantly since the 2012 Olympics and is due to continue following the gold medal win in Rio. To enable us to increase capacity to support facility development, we have reduced the number of Relationship Managers (RMs) from 12 roles (including 1 job share) to 10. We will be increasing our facilities team from 1 local officer to 3 Facilities RM roles. These changes mean that we will amend some of the geographical areas covered by the RMs. The 3 Facilities RMs will not be tied to specific areas as we will be looking for them to have national coverage.The number of Administrators in the regional offices will be reduced from 3 to 2 and we are adding an additional administrator to work on national participation programmes.We are pleased to say that we have not lost any of the current regional team through this process and there is no reduction in head count. The restructure is intended to provide better, more specific support to clubs as we continue to grow participation. This structure was last refreshed in 2011 and we need to adapt to the changing needs of the sport.See below for full text of the press release.

You may be aware that we have recently been updating the England Hockey strategy and have received our 4 year investments from Sport England and UK Sport. The picture is very positive overall for hockey, particularly in light of the broader landscape of NGBs in England.

Since receiving our awards, the Board have reviewed the staffing structure at England Hockey and we are making some relatively minor changes across the organisation to ensure we are structured in the best way to deliver our strategy moving forwards.What is changing?

The most relevant changes to you relate to the team of Relationship Managers and Administrators in the local offices.

One of the key risks to our sport going forward is pitch availability and development. Hockey has grown significantly since the 2012 Olympics and is due to continue following the gold medal win in Rio. To enable us to increase capacity to support facility development, we have reduced the number of Relationship Managers (RMs) from 12 roles (including 1 job share) to 10. We will be increasing our facilities team from 1 local officer to 3 Facilities RM roles.

These changes mean that we will amend some of the geographical areas covered by the RMs. The 3 Facilities RMs will not be tied to specific areas as we will be looking for them to have national coverage.

The number of Administrators in the regional offices will be reduced from 3 to 2 and we are adding an additional administrator to work on national participation programmes.

We are pleased to say that we have not lost any of the current regional team through this process and there is no reduction in head count. The restructure is intended to provide better, more specific support to clubs as we continue to grow participation. This structure was last refreshed in 2011 and we need to adapt to the changing needs of the sport.

What does this mean for your club or association?

Prior to these structural changes, we had employed Gary Johnson on a short term contract. We are delighted to announce that Gary has now been offered a permanent role within the team. He is hugely passionate about Hockey in Yorkshire and Humberside and has made a significant impact in a short amount of time. We hope you will continue to support him.

We also have good news to share in that the Regional team changes (going from 12 RMs to 10) has not impacted the North. There will still be 3 RMs covering the area. We feel that there is significant opportunity in the North and we are keen to invest time into growth over the next 4 to 10 years. We have attached contact details for our team below.

What can the Relationship Manager help you with?

As your Relationship Manager, Gary is your local contact for England Hockey related matters. He will try to help answer queries or resolve issues. Where this can’t be done, he will look to involve the relevant person within England Hockey to assist you.

We hope that you see your Relationship Manager as a trusted advisor who is able to help you and others maximise both short and long term opportunities. Their success is measured mostly on the growth of people playing hockey (as a sizeable proportion of our funding is from Sport England) and the support they provide. You may be aware of what they do and the team is increasingly focusing on :1. -> Running club forums where you can find out answers to issues and what other hockey clubs are doing2. -> Providing clubs with data and insight about their club and local area to help target opportunities3. -> Supporting club committees in turning their aims and ambitions into club development plans4. -> Helping clubs with Club School Links to grow sustainable junior sections and raise the club profile locally5. -> Guiding clubs through the new sleeker Club Mark process6. -> Partnership working with the Facilities RMs on pitch projects and playing pitch strategies7. -> Helping clubs make the most out of national campaigns and a big topic will be how your club can benefit from the Women’s World Cup next year.

What do I need to do?

We have sent this email to you as either the Chairperson, Secretary and Development Officer for your club. We would be grateful if you could circulate this wider so that people are aware of the changes. If you have recently changed your role within the committee and this no longer applies, please can you still circulate this and help by updating the club details in the EH Club Portal [link]. Thank you.

If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We look forward to working with you and to growing our wonderful sport.